Cops intervene after Elon Musk tried to get Twitter’s name taken down from ‘X’ headquarters
Topics: Elon Musk, Twitter, Social Media, US News
Anish Vij
Featured Image Credit: Twitter / @waynesutton
Topics: Elon Musk, Twitter, Social Media, US News
San Francisco police were at the scene outside Twitter HQ as a worker started tearing down the building's iconic sign a day after Elon Musk rebranded the platform to 'X'.
Musk appears to have started a major brand rebrand of the social media platform he bought for $44 billion last year.
On Monday (24 July) the new 'X' logo appeared on the official @twitter account, however, for many, the blue bird is still being displayed on the site itself.
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“It’s the end of an era, and a clear signal that the Twitter of the past 17 years is gone and not coming back,” explained Jasmine Enberg, an analyst with Insider Intelligence.
“But the writing was on the wall: Musk has been vocal about transforming Twitter into platform X from the start, and Twitter was already a shell of its former self.”
Meanwhile, at Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco on Monday, workers were seen removing the bird and logo, that's until police showed up.
During the early afternoon, the 'er' at the end of Twitter remained visible on the sign outside the building as police arrived at the scene and appeared to have halted the workers for unrelated reasons.
While there was initially thought to be a permit issue, cops later confirmed that 'no crime was committed'.
"At approximately 12:39 P.M. officers assigned to Tenderloin Station responded to the area of 10th and Market Street regarding a report of a possible unpermitted street closure," a San Francisco Police Department spokesperson said.
"Through their investigation officers were able to determine that no crime was committed, and this incident was not a police matter," they added.
Since acquiring Twitter, Musk has really switched things up and has turned off advertisers, which some argue could leave the site vulnerable to new threats, including rival Meta’s new text-based app Threads.
The Twitter boss had previously asked fans for logo ideas and chose one, which he described as minimalist Art Deco, saying it 'certainly will be refined'.
He replaced his own Twitter icon with a white 'X' on a black background and posted a picture of the design projected on Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.
“And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted on Sunday (23 July).
The X.com web domain now redirects users to Twitter.com, he said.
“I can’t say I’m surprised, but I think it’s a very selfish decision,” said Hannah Thoreson, of Baltimore, Maryland, who has used Twitter since 2009 for work and personal posts.
“There are so many small businesses and so many non-profits and so many government agencies and things like that all around the world that have relied on Twitter for many years to push their message and reach people.
“And they all have the Twitter icon on everything from their website to their business cards.”